| Description | Correspondence covering the period when Dan McKenzie was based at the Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics, University of California, La Jolla, San Diego, USA, July-August 1969.
Correspondents and subjects include:
JULY 1969
Douglas Hawkes, geological society of the University of Leicester, inviting McKenzie to give a talk on the subject of his choosing, 6 July 1969; David 'Dai' Davies, Department of Geophysics and Geodesy, University of Cambridge, England, computing facilities and the new computer programme Davies has written, 7 July [1969]; circular letter with reports and other enclosures on the previous work of Upper Mantle Committee and its possible new direction, 10 July 1969; IOU from Max Wyss [PhD Student at Caltech] for a loan of $600 from McKenzie, 14 July 1969; Nicola Kucza, Honorary Secretary of the Arthur Holmes Society, University of Durham, England, inviting McKenzie to address the society, 14 July 1969; Norman Leslie Falcon, convenor of the discussion meeting 'The Structure and Evolution of the Red Sea and the Nature of the Red Sea, Gulf of Aden and Ethiopian Rift Junction', held at the Royal Society, London, 27-29 March 1969, suggesting an explanation for the absence of McKenzie's paper in the published proceedings of the meeting and enclosing critical comments from Dr I L Gibson on McKenzie's presented paper ["The development of the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden in relation to plate tectonics"], 16 July 1969, with copy reply from McKenzie, 28 July 1969*; Drummond 'Drum' Matthews, Department of Geophysics and Geodesy, University of Cambridge, England, confirming McKenzie's appointment as SAR [Senior Assistant in Research], 24 July 1969*; letters between Douglas I Foy, electrical engineering student at Princeton University, and Drummond 'Drum' Matthews, Department of Geophysics and Geodesy, University of Cambridge, concerning the former's interest in studying at Cambridge, 18 & 27 July 1969; William Mansfield Cooper, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Manchester, England, inviting McKenzie to attend a committee interview for a new Chair of Geophysics which the institution is establishing, 16 July 1969, with a copy reply from McKenzie turning down the post as he is too young and settled at Cambridge, but is still keen on visiting the university anyway, 28 July 1969*; G N J Beck, Associate and Foreign Editor, 'Endeavour', Millbank, London, reminding McKenzie that he is to write a paper on the 'new tectonics' for his publication, 9 July 1969, with copy reply from McKenzie stating that it will be delayed [published as: McKenzie, D, "Plate tectonics and continental drift", 'Endeavour', vol 29 (1970), pp 39-44], 28 July 1969; letter from William Walker Black, Department of Geology, Sedgwick Museum, University of Cambridge, England, to Edward 'Teddy' Bullard, [head of the Department of Geophysics and Geodesy, University of Cambridge], Institute of Geophysics, University of California, concerning teething problems with McKenzie's appointment as SAR, as the university is likely to appoint at a junior grade, suggesting that McKenzie needs to write to General Board of the University to state that he will only accept the position at the higher grade, 30 July 1969, with brief note attached from Bullard forwarding the letter to McKenzie, 6 August 1969*; Peter 'Pete' Molnar, Lamont Geological Observatory of Columbia University, Palisades, New York, USA, interested in McKenzie's fitting of the coastlines in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden as he disagrees with the suggested location of the palaeopole for the area which appeared in the recent paper by Roberts [Roberts, D G, "Structural Evolution of the Rift Zones in the Middle East", 'Nature', vol 223 (1969), pp55-57], 30 July 1969; David 'Dai' Davies, Department of Geophysics and Geodesy, University of Cambridge, has accepted the post at Aldermaston [Atomic Weapons Research Establishment (AWRE), RAF Aldermaston] but is unsure what he will do when he gets there, disclaims responsibility for the paper by Roberts in 'Nature' [Roberts, D G, ibid], finding his current research on plate distortion of seismic pulses very interesting but is still having problems with residual spheres as the computer programmes are not working very well, approves of Bruce Bolt, 31 July [1969];
AUGUST 1969
Brief letter from William Mansfield Cooper, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Manchester, looking forward to meeting McKenzie, 1 August 1969; Xavier Le Pichon, Centre Océanologique de Bretagne, Brest Cedex, France, apologising for not being able to send McKenzie the promised programs as he has been busy organising a cruise in the North Atlantic, briefly passes comments on McKenzie's recent papers [notably McKenzie, D & W J Morgan, "The evolution of triple junctions", 'Nature' vol 224 (1969), pp125-133], 5 August 1969; copy letter from Edward 'Teddy' Bullard, Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics, University of California, La Jolla, San Diego, US [head of the Department of Geophysics and Geodesy, University of Cambridge] to A K Croston, Old Schools, [University of] Cambridge, England, arguing that Cambridge will look silly over losing McKenzie to the University of Manchester due to only offering the lower grade of salary for a junior position, 12 August 1969, with manuscript note by Bullard passing the letter to McKenzie, 12 August 1969*; Harry W Green II, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio, USA, forwarding his paper which came out of a discussion with McKenzie on the Nabarro-Herring creep in the mantle, 15 July 1969, with short copy reply from McKenzie, 20 August 1969; Leon Knopoff, Chairman, Upper Mantle Committee and Eugene C Robertson, Chairman, Harvard Committee, concerning arrangements for the forthcoming Francis Birch Symposium, 'The Nature of the Solid Earth', 20 August, 1969; T Todd, Director, Francis Hodgson Ltd, Guernsey, England, inviting McKenzie to write a 5,000 word article on continental tectonics for a new publication, 24 July 1969, with brief copy reply from McKenzie turning the offer down as he is too busy and the subject is not yet clearly understood, 20 August 1969; purchase order and invoice for 30 days consultancy services from McKenzie, issued by the University of California, San Diego, 22 August 1969*. |
| Administrative History | The purchase order and invoice, dated 22 August 1969, is likely to be the one referred to by McKenzie in Oreskes, N, 'Plate Tectonics an Insider's History of the Modern Theory of the Earth', Colorado: Westview Press (2001), p189, which was signed off by John Sclater to help with his living expenses. |